Feelings in Dance 2 - Beliefs

In searching for answers and ideas to develop my ability to teach/inspire the feeling side of dance, I read some research papers that inferred one doesn’t actually have to feel a feeling to express it as a dancer. I’m trying to be open-minded about this idea, yet instinct says that this is academic rubbish!! Yes, we don’t need to feel actual pain to express pain… but conversely wouldn’t it help? It comes down to the authenticity of emotion and the depth of performance one desires.

I have the belief that the movements (within reason) are less important than the emotional content behind them. The form is always there but it can change and evolve with the emotional content. The power and meaning in movement comes from its intention, what one desires to express. Movement in itself can be done in different ways so as to express different emotions (there will be natural variations, but in essence it will be the same steps). That this is the power of live performance, not the actual technique but the raw presence and feeling.

We are lucky in dance that we have both form and feeling. It makes dance unique and the crossover between the two gives it its power. I teach a lot of ballet to younger kids. I see the disinterest when a class gets to dry and technical and the excitement and joy that creating movement or expressing an idea through working with feelings gives. You of course need to teach kids both and ideally combine the two in exercises.

To get to the feeling content, one thing that I started a number of years ago was writing down a table of emotions and their basic movement qualities described in dynamics (Laban movement classification). Feelings are subjective, as each person feels slightly differently and also reacts physically and expresses themselves differently to certain emotions, but there are broad generalisations that one can make to do with different feelings. I will add some of the ideas over the next weeks as I refine and work on them.